Clarke facing strong rivalry

MICHAEL Clarke faces some strong opposition on his way to potentially becoming the first cricketer to win the Allan Border Medal in three successive years.

Clarke, Shane Watson and the retired Ricky Ponting, have all won in consecutive years, with Clarke and Ponting sharing the record of four wins.

Clarke, Watson, pace bowler Mitchell Johnson and emerging all-rounder James Faulkner are all likely to poll well in the medal, which will be presented in Sydney this evening.

Middle-order batsman Clarke dominated the count over the past couple of years but wasn't quite as prolific over the past 12 months, with matches in the voting period stretching from February 1 last year to January 20 this year.

He still scored four Test centuries plus another one- day ton, averaging over 40 in both forms.

Watson equalled Clarke's tally of five tons - three of them at one-day level - and was Australia's highest aggregate run- scorer over the three forms in the voting period.

However, he had 10 more innings than Clarke and averaged 34 to the skipper's 44 in Tests and didn't have any big hauls with the ball.

Johnson only played the six Tests, but picked up 37 wickets and was easily Australia's leading wicket- taker across all three forms, also performing well in one-day games.

Fellow paceman Ryan Harris regularly delivered at Test level, claiming 46 wickets in nine games, and could be a contender for Test player of the year, but probably not for the medal, as he didn't play any short- form cricket.